Sunglasses conveniently keep sun glare out of a wearer's eyes and improve a wearer's visibility for such tasks as driving and playing sports. However, when a wearer enters a dimly lit building, or when nightfall arrives, the wearer must search for a place to put his sunglasses. It is also common for a wearer to take his sunglasses off during an activity, set them down on a convenient nearby surface, and forget about them later on. This forgetful habit leads to millions of sunglasses being lost annually and also necessitates that the absent-minded wearers continually purchase new sunglasses. This cycle of losing sunglasses and having to purchase new ones can become expensive, as many quality brands of sunglasses cost over one hundred dollars.
One solution to this problem is for the wearer to place his sunglasses into a pants or shirt pocket until they are needed again, but pocket articles such as keys, or even the coarse fabric of many pants pockets can lead to scratching of sunglass lenses.
Another solution is represented by inventions which place a pair of keepers for retaining a pair of sunglasses upon a headwear article, such as a baseball cap, for example. This arrangement is represented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,159 (Martin); U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,554 (Yan) and U.S. Des. Pat. No. D503,261 (Pedersen). The solution of placing sunglasses on a hat in this manner serves the dual purpose of keeping a pair of sunglasses in the possession of the wearer, while keeping the lenses safe from damage. However, the embodiments of this concept represented in the cited patents tend to retain a pair of sunglasses too loosely, thereby causing the sunglasses to often fall from the hat, when the hat is removed quickly from the head, for example. If the sunglasses fall to the ground, their lenses can be damaged by the hard ground surface, or the wearer can destroy the sunglasses to stepping on them.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved headwear having a sunglass keeper which snugly retains a pair of sunglasses or eyeglasses upon the headwear under any normal wearing condition.
The foregoing reflects the state of the art of which the inventor is aware, and is tendered with a view toward discharging the inventor's acknowledged duty of candor, which may be pertinent to the patentability of the present invention. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing discussion does not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventor's claimed invention.